“Though the way of religion has thorns in it with respect to persecution, yet it is full of roses with respect to that inward peace and contentment that the soul finds in it.”
From Heaven Taken By Storm, Soli Deo Gloria Publications edition, pg. 73.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Thomas Watson 23
English nonconformist preacher and author 1616–1686Related quotes

Section 7 : Spiritual Progress
Founding Address (1876), Life and Destiny (1913)
Context: By what sort of experience are we led to the conviction that spirit exists? On the whole, by searching, painful experience. The rose Religion grows on a thorn-bush, and we must not be afraid to have our fingers lacerated by the thorns if we would pluck the rose.

2012-03-23
Atheist organizer takes ‘movement’ to nation’s capital
Dan Merica
Belief Blog
CNN
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/23/atheist-organizer-takes-movement-to-nations-capital/

“No rose without a thorn but many a thorn without a rose.”

Source: Problems and theories of philosophy, 1949, p. 152, as cited in Łukasiewicz, 2016.

Section 7 : Spiritual Progress
Life and Destiny (1913)

"The Rose" (published c. 1648). Compare: "Flower of all hue, and without thorn the rose", John Milton, Paradise Lost, book iv. line 256.; "Every rose has it's thorn", Poison, "Every Rose Has Its Thorn".
Hesperides (1648)

Kanzul `Ummal, Volume 7, Tradition 18972
Shi'ite Hadith